Page 60 of Meteor Storm

I stuffed the last bit of my bar into my mouth and stood from the metal stool I was sitting on. Sunhai looked at me, still chewing, and furrowed her brows, her color fading to a faint, greenish hue.

“Now?”

“Sure.”

I was more than eager to see how the ship ran, but more than that, I was already missing Thilar.

I felt like a fifteen-year-old me after finding out Peter Nieks wanted to ask me to the school dance… only this was completely different than that. Peter was a dumb boy who actually liked my friend, Emily. Thilar was an alien who’d killed for me and held my hand through surgery.

Some would joke we were practically married.

But then he disappeared…

My cheeks caught fire and before I could cover them, Sunhai was already staring.

“You are sick?”

“No.”

But I was.

I was sick for feeling things toward a man like Thilar. No, not a man. An alien. And the real reason I wanted to find the other wing was because I was hoping I had a higher chance of seeing him there. Considering he hadn’t tried to return to my side of the ship after I found him standing outside of my room, I had to think he’d been ordered not to. Or… perhaps he had other reasons. Either way, I missed him.

I missed him?

I sounded ridiculous.

“Come,” Sunhai waved, lazily dragging herself from the lonely mess hall.

I followed her out into the passage and down through a long corridor until we came to a curving stairwell lit by blue floor lights. Already, I was seeing more of the ship than I had the past few days.

We came to another hallway that stretched onward to a metal barrier with a seam down the middle. We stopped in front of it and I watched the seam light up blue from top to bottom as if quietly scanning us. Sunhai glanced over her shoulder at me.

“We are not crew. It is scanning for weapons and electrical devices.”

I glanced down at myself as if I might find something hidden on me that I didn’t know was there and then the door parted, opening into a much more active section of the ship.

I found myself staring at a large, open central area that extended three stories. Ramps encircled it, leading to the upper floors, and crew members were walking about, some in two-piece uniforms like Thilar’s and others in long, coat-like attire with symbols or badges lining the collar. I immediately assumed they were ranks or job titles.

The floor was reflective and polished to perfection. Not a single speck of dust littered it and upon its reflective surface were faint designs and symbols. Designs and symbols I soon realized were a galactic map filled with routes and planetary systems.

“Come,” Sunhai said, walking across the map like she belonged there.

I straightened my shoulders, trying to appear the same, but even with my life and experience, I wasn’t prepared to be on a ship filled with super-soldiers, each of them as lethally beautiful and dangerous as the next. All of them had silvery-gray skin, strong features, and a solid build. Some had no hair on their heads and others kept it long and braided tightly down the middle of their head like Thilar. Some even had meticulously trimmed facial hair. And, some were female. Their features were marginally softer and their builds slightly less prominent, but they wore the same uniforms and they walked with the same purpose. As I passed, some turned their heads, but only for a moment. None of them let distraction overtake them, but they all remained acutely aware of us both.

I was a confident woman, but for a split second, I felt entirely inadequate. Not because I felt weak or unattractive in comparison to these people, but because it was obvious I wasn’t even worth a second thought to a single one of them. They were highly evolved. Advanced. They were beyond what Earth could even imagine, traversing space like they were on a highway heading to work.

Looking ahead, I noticed Sunhai taking me down another hallway. It was darker there, lit by more floor lights. A few monrian crew members passed us by, but for the most part, it looked like we were heading to a less occupied area again.

“This place is huge,” I commented.

“It is a Continuum Vessel. One ship made from many. We left Mekah in small ship and joined this one when you were unconscious. Most monrian ships are that way. Old. Very old.”

“It looks brand new.”

She chuffed. “Well maintained. Continuum ships are very ancient.”

“Where are we going?” I asked.